skycat
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Everything posted by skycat
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Bread and milk is NOT good for ferrets: they are carnivores. It's a bit like the old advice to give hedgehogs bread and milk: people just didn't know any better in those days. Ferrets fed on bread and milk alone will be severely defficient in all the nutrients found in meat, which is their natural diet: a bit of milk every now and again won't hurt though. ANY sort of meat is better than bread and milk. Ours get mainly rabbit, and if we ever run out they get the chicken carcases we get off the butcher for the dogs. Even fed a whole adult fox to two litters of kits and their mothers a cou
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Like Ditch said: fat, and a decent amount of it: chicken, lamb or beef fat. Add a bit of offal once or twice a week: heart or liver. Don't forget the minced veg and fruit: the odd cooked egg, bit of fish, natural live yoghurt: in fact the more variety the better: that way you know the dog is getting everything he needs. Doesn't hurt to give a pinch of SA37 or similar supplement either, just to be sure he's not missing out on owt!
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WEll, my mincer just arrived from Northern Tool: having bolted it securely on to a work bench type of thing, we then had to bolt the bench to the walls and floor of our shed! It's a two handed job for lil 'ol me to push a bunny through but I managed it: and the chicken carcases go through easy peasy, and a couple of heads of celery and a cabbage! It's certainly going to give me a good work out to push a dozen or so bunnies through it: throw your exercise bikes and rowing machines away girls and get a mincer! Oh, by the way, it says on the instructions: don't put bones through it!
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I learned long ago not to use hay when a first time jill had her kits in hay: never seen it before or since, but she obviously didn't chew the umbilical cords off close enough and 4 kits were sort of entangled together in hay and cords: managed to save 3 of them but one had had the circulation completely cut off in one leg. Straw every time for me, providing its clean, dry and not musty. Paper's sort of OK, but does get flattened and matted into a sort of papier mache rather easily. Just my experience on the matter. Edited to add: hay can be very hot as well if the weather is warm. Str
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I have put my dogs in kennels twice in 30 years odd years: once a VERY long time ago, my Irish Wolfhound bitch, for only 2 weeks: to a reccomended and previously checked out kennels. when I went to fetch her she had pressure sores on her elbows and stank of dog pee and filth: I was only young then and did nothing, more's the pity: if it had happened later in my life I would have sued the arse off the b*****ds. The second time was for a long weekend at a friend's boarding kennel, and I must say the dogs were fine as the guy was top notch in every way. I've got too many to afford kennels no
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Oh lovely story! Yes, I can picture you leaping out of the bed at warp speed: just classic! Once again Ditch, you've brightened my day and made me laugh:
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See it and weep! Incredible.
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He does have that puppy look about him: at a wild guess I'd say he's under a year old, though obviously impossible to say for certain: there's just something about his head that says he's still maturing.
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Well done that pup: love the montage effect.
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at Reload! I think Mr Stainton would be very upset to think that 'his line' was involved in the production of a merle LOL
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Ah, Stat's dogs...... They're lurcher to lurcher bred with all sorts in them: good worker to good worker. I'd sooner call them a 'family' of lurchers as the 'type' isn't fixed by appearance or coat etc. Some are smooth, some rough, some have virtauly no Saluki in, some have more. Now here's an interesting question: when does a 'family' become a 'line'? How many generations does it take? And would that involve inbreeding/line breeding or what? Be interested to hear anyone's views on it. I've got a 'family' of lurchers; I'm now down to 4th generation on the bitch side, outcrossing every
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What's a stainton lurcher? Excuse my ignorance.
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Dogs evolved to have a good feed up when the pack has killed, not 'graze' continually like herbivores. Not natural for them to have food permanently in their stomach, or gut. Why do you do it anyway? I like to know HOW MUCH my dogs need to eat, that way I can make sure they don't get overweight or underweight (not ever had that happen though LOL) They're greedy buggers. Far too many dogs are overweight nowadays: has the same consequences on dogs as humans: heart failure through obesity etc etc.
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Great read there! Reminded me of the time when my lurchers disturbed a wasps' nest on a bank: dogs running everywhere, rolling in the grass to get the feckers off, and me running hell for leather to get away, and my big old Deerhound/Grey running after me begging me to get them off her where they were burying through her coat to make a hit. Pulled at least 20 off her and flattened the rest: she thought I was just patting her LOL. Emptied a whole bottle of vinegar over her when we got home: thank God she was none the worse for it.
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Can't you just fence off part of the garden for the dog where he can do as he likes? That's what I've done: mind you I do have a big garden: though even a small area for the dog as his own will be better than nothing. That way you are not having to tell him off all the time for doing something that is just natural dog behaviour.
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That's a really good idea having the slide show showing the development of the dog: :clapping:
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that's an awful shock for you both: my old terrier bitch went into shock last year when she was stung by 2 bees on her lips: just keeled over and lay there rigid. thankfully she recovered but it's a horrible feeling when you don't know what caused it: like some others have said, a PM won't necessarily reveal the cause without it costing a fortune: like looking for a needle in a haystack my vet once said.
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I've just ordered one: and the reason I want to mince my rabbits and chicken carcases is that way I can mix in their veg etc: not only to do them good but to add a bit of bulk as my dogs are getting soo fat. Their breast of lamb and other bones they can still have whole to amuse them and keep their teeth clean.
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I've had two very grovelly bottom of the pack lurchers: both of them went on to be demon hunters taking fox with a vengeance, yet they always grovelled to the other dogs and were unltra submissive to me. You just never can tell how they will turn out in the field: just be gentle with her and give her lots of time: good luck with her.
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For the dog that has everything: £95 for a lead and collar!!! OMG!
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Visit My WebsiteFerret Aleutian Disease Virus On The Rise AgainThat's sad news: could it be Aleutian Disease? www.weaselwords.com/page/ferret_art014.php - 10k For some reason the first link doesn't work: go to the second one and look up from main menu.
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Saluki types are the most independant wanting to be self employed dogs there are: been said before, but anything bred to endure the sort of conditions their breed treats as every day normal in the desert countries just has to be very very tough indeed, and posessed of that sort of grit, determination and sheer bloody minded tenacity needed to run down a hare or gazelle in extreme conditions. One of mine was the most horrible dog in the world until he hit 2 years, when he suddenly came right and was a dream to own. I add that I was very hard on him: he was not the shrinking violet type at al
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Didn't the tendons clog up the holes at all? And how much force did you have to use to turn the handle? In other words, would an old weakling like me be able to do say, 20 rabbits without my arm dropping off?
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Just come back to this thread and I've got to say that when my dogs went totally on to raw they needed far less than I would have believed possible to survive. My namesake, Skycat, is 23" and gets fat, very fat, on one bit of stripped chicken carcase, a handful of minced meat and veg and a small piece of breast of lamb which the butcher has stripped of most of the meat and fat. And she gets a good hour and a hlaf of exercise every day which is mainly running rabbits round the bushes and hedges where I live. The thing is that meat and bones take far longer to go throught the digestive tract
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Can you not get them some whole fur and feather? Rabbit and pigeon. If you can't, then get some butcher's mince and add a pinch of SA37 each time you feed them. Please don't give them complete unless in an emergency and you can't get anything else for them: at this age they need all the natural food they can get. We never let our kits go until they are 10 weeks old minumum: think cat rather than dog as far as development goes. They should have been still with their mum at this age IMO. Though I'm sure they'll do fine with you: just take it very steady and expect them to sleep a lot and do
